This morning I posted the following blog post, happily, that finally my newsletter subscription works. It took me a long time to get this done and follow all necessary steps I was given to make it work again. Of course, I had tested subscribing and unsubscribing before publishing the article. It worked perfectly, which made me publish the article.

And as soon as the post was published I was informed that it does not work.

I’m shocked. This is embarrassing, and I’m extremely unhappy how it turned out. I just wrote an armor-clad email to MailChimp to immediately solve that problem.

I’m contrite and hope you’ll forgive me for publishing something that does not work. I’m sorry.

My name is Wendy Unsworth. I am originally from Lincolnshire in the north east of England but I haven’t lived there since my twenties. A lifelong love and curiosity about travel has taken me and my family to many places and for thirteen years we lived in Central and East Africa. We returned to England and spent some years in Cornwall and made our home in a cottage that was built in 1750. There are good and bad points in living in such an old property, but mostly good! These days I spend my time between Scotland and the wilds of Portugal as we have family in both of those countries.

When did you start writing?

Reading interviews such as these, it’s interesting to note that most authors tend to say that they have dabbled with writing for as long as they can remember and I’m no different. I always kept diaries and journals as a child and in my early teens wrote a story several notebooks long about a man accused of robbery in eighteenth century England. He’s forced to flee the country to avoid the hangman’s noose and has several adventures before proving his innocence.

I don’t know what finally happened to those notebooks but suffice to say the historical accuracy was based on old films about pirates and highwaymen and therefore wildly inaccurate! I do so love a well crafted and well researched historical book and admire those who research and capture a particular period so well that they can transport their readers. Mine was not in any way like that, but it was good writing practice!

What motivates you to write?

Oh! Tricky. I suppose it’s creativity that needs to find some kind of form. I love to knit and sew, make home furnishings and create lovely and dramatic gardens. Writing books is at the heart of that love, creating with words. The best part of writing though is that you can actually do it in your head, while you’re washing up or driving or knitting or sewing – creative multi-tasking!

What genre do you write in and what made you choose this particular genre?

I choose to write in the genres I most love to read, for my own pleasure and for reading aloud to children.

The stories I write are about testing my characters, about what they can come up with when the chips are down. They’re about murder and family secrets, good and bad people. They probably cross some lines between murder mystery and psychological thriller and although I know genres are supposed to be a little more fixed than that, my characters don’t seem to be able to comply.

As a complete change, I also have a series of chapter books for children which are both magical and mad cap.

What is your goal in writing? Do you have dreams where your writing should take you?

My goal is my next book. My W.I.P. is always my big dream and I can’t wait to finish it. As far as longer term dreams, to write books that can give real pleasure. I hope that others can find genuine enjoyment in the stories I tell. To have someone say, Wow! That is such a good story, I really connected with it; that means a lot.

Do you ever suffer from writer’s block and if yes, how do you deal with it?

Oh every day! Seriously though, my daily writing sessions seem to stop-start, that is, I find flow and then get stuck, find it again for a while and then get stuck again. It’s just that way with me.

Since discovering Scrivener that problem has been a little easier to overcome. I split my latest project (manuscript) into documents on a cork board. For my WIP at the moment, Dirty Work, the action is split into days (Day one, Day Two…) and those days are split into action and POV changes.

When I get stuck I try to unstick myself but if some point is really holding me back I just flip to another document and pick up the action elsewhere in the book. It means I can give myself a break from the sticking point and also that I am still getting some words on the page which is good for morale.

What advice would you like to give new, hopeful authors?

I would say, keep your chin up!

Do not listen to naysayers who quote impossible odds at you. If you want to write, write.

If you want to sell the books you write, inform yourself. Read the many blog posts and articles out there; authors are generous in sharing what does and does not work for them.

As far as social media is concerned be okay with the fact that you can’t do everything.

Love books and read them.

Please, tell us about your work.

Thank you. I would love to tell you a little bit about my work so far.

My Berriwood books are a series based around the fictional community of Berriwood. It’s a small Cornish village where people tend to know one another and nothing much ever happens. It’s ordinary people living ordinary lives, until…

There is always an until’!

Here they are with a little bit of blurb about each:

The Palaver Tree. (Book 1)

Gabriel Cole is a brilliant man. He’s clever; a tireless campaigner for his own charitable foundation. He’s good looking and charming and he takes care of everyone he meets. Ask anyone.

Ask Ellie who travels all the way to Africa to work for him.

Ask Tiffany who plans to marry him.

Ask Promise who loves him or Diane who admires him.

But don’t ask Pax… she knows something.

From a quaint Cornish village to the dust and heat of Africa. If good people would talk to one another, the truth could be told.

************************************

Beneathwood (Book 2)

This time the action stays close to home:-

Beryl Carroll has lived in the Cornish village of Berriwood for so long that it’s easy to forget she wasn’t born there.

It’s easy… and it’s better.

She fled to the village, a young girl, in search of Gordon, her lost love and in an attempt to escape her sister and her mother and the terrible thing they had all done.

She should have told Gordon what happened, he had a right to know. But what if he couldn’t forgive her? What if he sent her away?

Time has healed, it has banished the past to a few, secret memories but when the couple move into to Beneathwood, the rambling old house on the edge of the village, strange things begin to happen and Beryl has the feeling that the truth is back, welcome or not..

************************************

Dirty Work (Book 3)

Appearances can be deceptive.

Take the Duke twins. Pete lost his IT job almost two years ago; he is best known in his native village of Berriwood for his tendency to be found propped up against a bar somewhere… or under it. It has been a tough time for Caroline, Pete’s wife, but at last, it seems he is turning things around.

Nathan is the success story of the family, the darling of the local amateur dramatic society who gave it all up for his high flying directorship based in London. But his wife, Marcie hates the lonely days while he works away and forgetting her birthday is the last straw.

When Nathan invites Caroline and Pete to a surprise birthday dinner for Marcie, to make amends, Caroline has her reservations. She knows if anyone is going to spoil the party it would be Pete; he has done it plenty of times before. What she doesn’t anticipate is that her husband won’t even be there and that one of the four will very soon be dead…

This is my newest work in the series, available on Amazon for pre-order from May 17th 2017 and due to be published on June 16th 2017.

Thank you for being my guest. It was such a pleasure to have you here!!

I am so grateful to have been invited to your lovely blog. Thank you for having me

I started as an illustrator primarily and grew into writing. I moved from free-lance graphic design to illustrating my own work in 2012, though I’ve been both drawing and writing since I can remember, having won artwork, essay writing, and poetry competitions as a child. I may be most proud of my Blue Peter appearance and badge I received for an essay, though perhaps only the British readers will appreciate its significance.

What motivates you to write?

Everything and anything out of the ordinary. That which makes me pause in wonder, or strikes me by how wonderful it would be, were it so. I particularly like scenes of times and places somehow connected to us but distant enough to fade into antiquity.

What genre do you write in and what made you chose this particular genre?

I write in nonsense and linguistics. As a dyslexic English lecturer living in Japan I have developed a deep understanding of a language that baffles me. Japanese is hard too. But English in its flexibility serves me possibly more than any other language could, as a tool to be molded until it’s broken and shaped until it’s bent completely out. I prefer to allow the language to help my stories take shape, as long as it isn’t a pear’s.

What is your goal in writing? Do you have dreams where your writing should take you?

My goal is to create world’s in which people enjoy the playground of the English language, its etymologies, its idiomatic expressiveness, to both amuse and cultivate the brighter mind.

Do you ever suffer from writer’s block and if yes, how do you deal with it?

I do. But I work on a variety of projects at a time, and within each project I work on the text, the illustrations, the formatting, and so on, so if ever something seems wholly unwilling, I change my focus until I can catch it off-guard. Some of my best ideas come from when I shrewdly caught them unalert.

What advice would you like to give new, hopeful authors?

Everybody has his or her own approach to creativity. Some profess to reading, but I say be selective. If there is a story you want to write, find someone who you think would most competently tell it, and study him or her carefully. My companions range from Lewis Carroll to Bruegel. It’s strange how we find our voice from listening to others’.

Please, tell us about your work.

I’m working currently on a few projects: a collection of sixteen short stories called In Truth Stories, a collection of parables and fables called The Allegaurus, and now marketing a recently released book of 200 riddles, ‘some rather difficult, and others unreasonably so’, From the Riddle Me Collection Volume One: A Stone’s Throw.

Thank you for being my guest. It was such a pleasure to have you here!!

1. When did you start writing?
I started writing when I was a young girl in school. All through school, I would write poetry and children stories. The poetry has either been thrown out or is hiding somewhere, I’m not good at that and I know it. The children stories are sitting on a shelf in my closet. After my first child, I had a couple of poems published but I still consider my poetry bad so I didn’t focus on that. Instead, I was inspired one day to write my first book, Love Everlasting. It was published by a not so reputable publishing company. I had no idea to steer away from them, but it was a valuable lesson because I was able to connect with other writers and I learned a lot about the publishing world.

2. What motivates you to write?
A better future for my children! I also write because I hear characters talking to me and begging to put their lives on paper but honestly, my motivation is making a career out of my words so that someday I can give my kids the world. I’m also motivated by the memory of my father, he always told me stories and I knew that I was meant to continue the tradition.

3. What genre do you write in and what made you chose this particular genre?
My newest book, and my first are paranormal romance, but I also love to write historical fiction. The paranormal romances pick me, the stories just pop in my head and I have no control over them. I think I’m different in the paranormal world though because most of them are about vampires, werewolves, etc.. But, ‘paranormal’ means anything out of the ordinary and that’s where my ‘ghosts’ come in. I have another one that I’m writing and that’s time travel, but not in the sci-fi way. As for historical fictions, I chose to write that because I love it so much. It’s too bad I didn’t pay more attention to history in school- I would have it was all taught through movies and fiction. I think I’m an old soul and when I’m writing historical fiction, I feel like I’m there. My second book, Amelia’s Story is a historical fiction that is inspired by actual events.

4. What is your goal in writing? Do you have dreams where your writing should take you?
Right now my goal is to finish the book I’m currently writing (first draft at least) by mid-August. Over all, my goals are like my motivation- to provide for my kids in the future. Believe it or not, it’s not my dream to become a household name and extremely famous. (If it happens, hey it happens and I won’t complain) My dream is just to sell books and make enough money to live comfortably.

5. Do you ever suffer from writer’s block and if yes, how do you deal with it?
Very often! I try to remain productive even if I can’t write. When it hits me, I tend to start reading other author’s books and write up reviews for them. If I’m not reading for others, I’ll read marketing books and do some research. I do get very cranky when I can’t write sometimes. Maybe I’m too hard on myself.

6. What advice would you like to give new, hopeful authors?
To never give up and also not to worry about all the writing hype that’s out there. It doesn’t matter what your word count is; trying to make a story stretch to 100k words isn’t always the best answer. I think it’s better to just tell the story that you want to tell and don’t worry about the length. There are always revisions which can add to the story, and it could end up being just a novella. (Those sell well via ebooks) Also, don’t worry about how it’s going to be published. Traditional publishing isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be and independent publishing isn’t as bad as you think. Biggest advice is to keep writing, no matter what.

7. Please, tell us about your work.
My latest novella (Release July 5th, 2016) is a Paranormal Romance Novella. It’s about a girl, Sophia, who moves into a house that once was a church. She thinks she’s safe because it used to be a house of God but what she doesn’t know is that 15 years earlier, there was a murder/suicide inside. Her life isn’t much different from the murdered girl’s and little by little, the house is driving her insane. She meets Frankie, who was the fiancé of the murdered girl, but he never tells her why he won’t set foot inside of her home. He doesn’t believe that its haunted but finds out for himself. It’s a story about obsessive relationships and the possible outcome from them. St. Matthew’s House is available on Amazon.com, kindle edition for now and is free in Kindle Unlimited. I plan on releasing the paperback by Christmas time.
In 2007 I published “The Cold Case of Millersport: Amelia’s Story.” I was going through a hard time in my personal life and realized that I didn’t end it the way I wanted to. The book was unpublished and taken off the market. I fixed it up and rereleased it in 2013. Available wherever books are sold. Currently I am in the process of releasing an audio version of this book, which is taking longer than expected but hopefully well worth it when it’s out. Set in 1813, Amelia Samuels is being forced to marry Thomas Van Martin, son of the wealthiest man in the village. She can’t stand Thomas and is the only one who can see right through him. Amelia’ begs her father to allow her to marry for love, but what she doesn’t know is that he’s being blackmailed by the Van Martins. She does meet the stranger in town, Patrick, and they fall in love. This makes her life very difficult and puts her in grave danger. This story is about a community that copes with a tragedy and a family in grief. “Amelia’s Story,” could be considered a family saga as it effects all the characters and changes their lives forever.

And my first novella, Love Everlasting, is about a man and wife separated by death after only one year of marriage. Lauren is told, in Heaven, that if her husband, Mark, remarries or is intimate with another at any point in his life- they won’t be together forever in Heaven. She learns that memories of Earth fade and that if he goes on with his life, she’ll still be happy. But, she doesn’t want that. There is nothing she can do when he starts dating, Jody, but hope for the best. Can their love withstand Heaven and Earth?

Thank you for being my guest. It was such a pleasure to have you here!!
Thank you for the opportunity. I look forward to reading your work as well!

Hi! I’m Darlene Foster, a writer of children’s books, travel articles and short stories. I grew up on a ranch in southern Alberta, Canada where I dreamt of travelling the world and becoming a published writer. I call the west coast of Canada and the Costa Blanca of Spain my home these days. Dreams do come true!

When did you start writing?

I have been writing for as long as I can remember. Putting words down on paper has always been a pleasure for me. I had a story published in a local newspaper when I was twelve. It was called Stretch Your Food Dollar. The crazy thing is that it is about an amusing experience two young girls have in a department store. Little did I know, all these years later, I would publish books about two girls having adventures and amusing experiences in various countries.

What motivates you to write?

I am motivated by boredom. If I feel I might be getting bored, I start a new writing project. Then I complain I’m too busy but I actually like it that way.

What genre do you write in and what made you chose this particular genre?

For the most part, I write travel adventure stories for children. I tend to relate best with children. Some say I have never really grown up myself. Adulthood is far over rated. Tweens, kids aged eight to twelve are delightful. They are in the middle, no longer little children but not yet teenagers. There is still that sweet innocence but they are starting to question things and think for themselves. That sense of adventure kicks in and they crave more independence, at the same time like to feel safe in the familiar.

What is your goal in writing? Do you have dreams where your writing should take you?

My goal is to have many children (and adults) all over the world read and enjoy my books. My dreams are that schools will stick my books in their libraries and teachers will use them in the classroom.

Do you ever suffer from writer’s block and if yes, how do you deal with it?

I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t suffer from writer’s block from time to time. Sometimes the words just won’t come. I often deal with it by going for a walk or reading a book. Chatting with a friend or family member, not even about the book, often unlocks the creative juices. Hanging around kids works as well. Once I was struggling with the ending of one of my books and getting very frustrated. My dear husband had given me a gift certificate for a massage for my birthday. While having the massage, the ending came to me as clear as could be. I raced home and typed it up! You just never know. But sitting in front of the screen doesn’t work, I have to leave it and do something different.

What advice would you like to give new, hopeful authors?

If you have a dream of becoming a published author, never give up on that dream. It may take a while and it will take a lot of hard work, but it is worth it! Also connect with other authors. The writing community is so supportive and encouraging. You can’t do it alone.

Please, tell us about your work.

My books feature Amanda Ross, a 12 year old Canadian girl who decides that the only way out of her boring existence is to travel. In Amanda in Arabia – The Perfume Flask, she makes a wish on her birthday for a chance to travel and gets an airline ticket to the United Arab Emirates to visit her Aunt the next day. She doesn’t even know where that is and has to look it up on the internet. Once there she meets Leah, an English girl, and before she knows it they are in the middle of an adventure that involves a runaway princess, bounty hunters, camels and a sand storm. She often finds herself wishing she were back home in her boring but safe life once again. Amanda travels to Spain to join Leah in Amanda in Spain – The Girl in The Painting, where they help a young girl, who looks like a girl in a famous painting, escape the clutches of a mean horse thief. She also visits Leah in Amanda in England – The Missing Novel, where they get lost in a maze, hide in an underground tunnel and ride the London Eye in search of a missing vintage novel. When Leah visits Amanda in Amanda in Alberta – The Writing on the Stone, they take in all the sights while trying to decipher the mysterious writing on a stone and keep it from getting into the wrong hands. No matter where Amanda travels, she can’t seem to stay away from danger. In the fifth book soon to be released, Amanda on the Danube – The Sounds of Music, Amanda is given a precious violin to look after as she enjoys a cruise down the Danube with Leah. Things aren’t always what they seem and Amanda is not sure who she can trust. Even Leah is acting strange.

Thank you for being my guest. It was such a pleasure to have you here!!

Thank you for having me as a guest on your blog. It has been fun talking to you about my writing journey. Life is an adventure, enjoy!!